Lafayette football follow-up: Delaware switches gears to power past Leopards

Paul ReinhardSpecial to The Morning Call

Football coaches like to talk about "taking what the opponent gives us," but sometimes that's not the best idea.

"Because we thought they'd be there, and they were," according to Delaware coach Dave Brock, the Blue Hens attempted but came up empty on a pair of home-run pass plays in the first half against Lafayette on Saturday night, missing a wide open receiver on the first play of the game and having another open receiver drop an easy one in the second quarter.

The Blue Hens were 4-for-11 passing for only 31 yards in the first two periods, so, after falling behind 6-3 in the third quarter, Brock said, his team "played it a little bit more like we probably should have" all along.

Tweaking the game plan, in favor of a running game that had been successful a week earlier, was all Delaware needed to right the ship and bull its way to a 24-6 victory over the Leopards in their first meeting in Easton in 45 years.

The Blue Hens combined six runs with one (incomplete) pass in a go-ahead TD drive. On their next possession, despite committing three setback penalties, they used six bruising runs to set up a wide open 35-yard touchdown pass on a fourth down play to ruin any hopes Lafayette had of making a comeback.

"It's great to finish the way we did," Brock said. "That's the team we're built to be, built to finish games and run the ball. And as long as we can do that, we thrive."

The fact that the Leopards played a lot of very stout defense against the Hens — 14 and 10 tackles by linebackers Brandon Bryant and Michael Root, respectively — received two different comments after the game.

"There's no consolation in playing a good football team tough," said head coach Frank Tavani. "We lost — whether you lose by 1, 21, 41 or 101 it's a loss. So, obviously, there's a bitter taste in your mouth when you lose, but the bottom line is you have to get up off the mat and get up tomorrow morning and move forward."

Bryant, who has 32 tackles in two games against Delaware, said, "The biggest thing is to not dwell. It happened. It's not like we just got throttled; we fought through the entire time, so we can keep our heads high. A loss is a loss. So, there's no happy feeling about that. But we know we can play with the best of them; there's no doubt in my mind."

The Leopards had little to talk about in an offense that gained only 189 yards. Quarterback Drew Reed, who had a big night in the opening-game win against Central Connecticut State, was 14-for-31 for only 111 yards and was intercepted twice. Matt Mrazek had eight catches, but for just 59 yards and no touchdowns.

The Leopards were saddled with some terrible field position. The first five drives and eight overall started inside the 21-yard line, and Tavani said, "Guys are battling out there; that's all I can ask them to do. It's not for lack of trying, but we have to get more physical up front and have to create some seams because we have some backs that can run.

"Now we have to prepare blind for a team we have no film on and is playing its opener," Tavani said about the Leopards' game at 5 p.m. next Saturday against Princeton in Princeton Stadium. The Lions have defeated Lafayette eight times in a row.